Remembering Lincoln
by AustinDR
Summary: This was written in response to Requiem for a Loud by UnderratedHero (great storyteller, btw). It has been four years since Lincoln's death, and Lily discovers a picture of her late brother, but is unable to recognize who he is.
1. A Difficult Answer

Remembering Lincoln

It's funny how a tragedy could bring a family together. It hasn't been less than four years after the Loud family was forced to part with Lincoln. What started as a simple trip to the park revealed itself as a nightmare when Lincoln passes out from blood loss. It only went from bad to worse when Lincoln was diagnosed with brain tumors, meaning that he only had a short amount of time left to live. Lincoln had been suffering from symptoms pertaining to the wretched disease that went unnoticed by his family. By the time that they were made aware of the young boy's condition, Lincoln slowly drifted into the final stages of the malady. Although distraught by the announcement, Lincoln tried the best to his ability to instill good memories in his sisters so that when the time came, they could fondly think back about the time that they had together.

As the week slowly went by, the cancerous cells slowly drained Lincoln of his energy. It had gotten to the point it was recommended that Lincoln spend a few nights in the hospital. Even though it pained his parents to do so, they obliged. His younger sisters - Lucy, Lola and Lana - were made aware that their brother's health was failing, and naturally, they didn't take it well. While his younger siblings expressed their sadness in different ways (Lucy, who was morbidly fascinated by death sniffled at the announcement for instance), arguably the worst reaction was Lisa's. Taking it upon herself to find a cure for her brother's illness, she was made to realize that there was no hope for her brother. Usually the stoic, the reality of the situation drove Lisa to tears, and she destroyed her research. She was even unwilling to attend his funeral; it took her sisters having to convince her that it wasn't her fault to convince her to go.

Eventually, the Loud family went to the hospital to request that Lincoln be removed so that he could attend his sister, Lynn's, game. The hospital respected their wishes and provided a wheelchair for Lincoln. And then it happened. As the game was nearing its climax, Lincoln leans over in agony, grabbing onto his chest. The family immediately rushes to the hospital, where they are informed that the tumor was spreading to his heart. Lincoln ultimately died with his loved ones around him. His sisters' eyes were filled with tears as they saw the life slowly drain out of his eyes. Before he passed off to eternal slumber, he swore that he could see his friend, Adrien, standing beside him with a warm smile on his face.

Lincoln's funeral was a rather simple one. His family invited all who would attend. Even Mr. Grouse, the resident grouch of Royal Woods, took time to pay his condolences to the grieving family. It would seem that his gratefulness to Lincoln for giving him a one-way ticket for Christmas really rubbed off on him. The funeral service was dreary at first. Lincoln had tried to encourage his sisters to be strong in the events of his passing, but they were completely shattered by their loss. It takes Luna suggesting that they remember all of the funny times that they had with their brother to lift their spirits slightly. After they had finished on what they had wanted to say about their brother, others took part in the discussion. Clyde reminisces on the misadventures he and Lincoln engaged in, Ronnie Anne talked about how she used to tease him a lot, Grouse remembered when Lincoln's action figure was tossed into his backyard and he kept it, etc. Eventually, the family opted to cremate Lincoln, because they feared that Lisa would try to bring him back through science. Lincoln's ashes were placed in an orange urn jar that sat on top of the fireplace, out of the reach of the younger siblings. Even though it was only a few years after Lincoln's death, the family didn't seem as energetic as they used to be prior to the devastating experience. Lincoln was hardly mentioned in any discussions by his sisters, as they feared that this would trigger traumatizing memories of watching their only brother die slowly from the brain tumors. It became such a problem, that Lynn Sr. and Rita opted to keep the spare bedroom off limits. Taking a lock, the room remained unopened for quite some time. With that, the Loud house became less loud.

As with everything, the sisters grew older. Lori had graduated from high school, and went to acquire a fairly well-paying job after college. Leni was working at a restaurant as a waitress, Luna and Luan were hardly ever home. The younger siblings were also getting older as well. Lily in particular was starting to learn more words. Lincoln would've loved to have witnessed Lily's training going well without a hinge. Lily had become quite the adorable young girl as one could imagine. At four years old, Lily was mischievous, getting into trouble whenever she could. She expected her older sisters to play with her every now and then, but she didn't mind playing by herself. She was playing with a bouncy ball one Wednesday afternoon, and she tossed it down the hall. Unsurprisingly, the ball overturned vases and other breakables. The ball then bounced off of a door that slowly creaked open. Giggling, Lily scampered to retrieve her ball. She was about to head back downstairs, but seeing the empty room open sparked her curiosity. Lily quietly waltzed into the room, and was fascinated by what it held. Lily walks over to the bed, and she sees a cute stuffed rabbit sitting on the bed sheets. Without any consideration on her part, she makes a grab at the stuffed animal, accidentally roughing it in the process. She hides the torn rabbit underneath the bed, and she he heads over to the counter. She sees a picture of a young boy that she didn't recognize. The young boy was in a family picture dated 2016, and to her surprise, he had white hair. No one in her family, barring Pop Pop, had white hair. She squinted at the picture in deep thought. She seems to remember this boy from somewhere, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Maybe if she were to show the picture to her older sisters they could clarify on the identity of the boy before her.

Lucy, Lola, Lana, and Lisa were sitting on the couch watching a show at that time, when Lily scampered into the room. "Hey, I found a picture," Lily says in an excited tone. Her sisters didn't seem to acknowledge her presence that much, as they continued to watch their show uninterrupted. "That's nice, sister unit," replies Lisa in her usual monotone. Lily, seemingly unfazed by this, continued to speak. "I found this picture in some locked room, but I don't know who this boy is." The remote drops on the floor with a thud. "R...room?" Lily shakes her head excitedly. Upon further expression, Lisa realizes that Lily had gotten the picture from the locked room. A great silence engulfed the room as the sisters tried to process the situation. "So, who is this," Lily says more forcefully. Her sisters looked at each other for a long time contemplating on who should be the one to tell Lily. Sighing, Lana sits down beside Lily and, with a heavy heart, she explained the mysterious boy to her. "Lily, this was your older brother, Lincoln." Lily's jaw drops in surprise. "I have a brother? Where is he?" Lana tugs at her shirt nervously before continuing on. "You see Lily, your brother was sick for an awful long time, and he didn't get better." Lily scratches her head in confusion. She got sick a few times, and the only thing that she needed to feel better was medicine. "So?" Lily says without a hint of hostility in her voice "mommy always makes me feel better whenever I feel sick, so why couldn't Lincoln get better?" Her older sisters were feeling the waterworks coming on, but they felt compelled to continue. "He...he," Lana began before warm tears overtook her. Lola consoled her, and she took over. "Lily, remember when you had that pet butterfly you've had once and dad accidentally crushed it?" Lily nods. "Well, Lincoln's in that same kind of situation that your pet was. He's...he's dead." Lily still couldn't get a grasp of what she was trying to tell her. "But, if he died, why don't I remember him?" Lana pats Lily's head tenderly. "You were so young when Lincoln left. He loved you so much and would've loved to spend time with you."

Lily didn't know how to meditate on her sister's assuring words. She wanted to feel sad that her brother was gone, but she just couldn't fathom that she had special moments with him. What's more, she felt angry that her sisters got to know him longer than she ever could. And yet she could recall some distant memories of spending time with some boy when she was younger. "It's not fair, all of you got to know and love him! Why, why does it have to be this way?" she yelled. Lana looks at her with understanding eyes. She dips Lily from off the floor and hugs her deeply. "Sometimes, there isn't a reason why this happens."

Even though the sisters were greatly saddened by having to come to terms that their only brother wasn't coming back, they decided to take this as an opportunity to show Lily glimpses of what her brother was like. With Luan's help, the sisters watch home videos of the time that Lincoln spent with them. What caught Lily's interest was when it came to her interaction with her brother. She witnessed him playing with her, and tucking her in at night. A lump began to form in Lily's throat as tears burned her eyes. Soon, all of the sisters were crying, but they were tears of joy as memories of Lincoln poured out from them.


	2. Lincoln's Farewell

Lincoln's Farewell

Lincoln stirs awake from his bout of unconsciousness to the full realization that he was back at the hospital. He seemed to faintly remember feeling lightheaded and passing out, but everything else was a blur. Before he could process his surroundings, a familiar voice caught him off guard. "Lincoln," screams Luan "Guys, he's awake!" Without any warning, his sisters charged into the room at full speed. "Girls, girls, we talked about this," drones a tireless Rita. Lincoln rubs his eyes with the back of his hands.

"Hey there, sweetie, how are you feeling?" inquires Rita. "I feel as though someone stepped on my chest." Lynn Sr. walks in with a cup of coffee. "Son, you really gave us a scare back there." Lincoln looks at him in curiosity. "What did I do?" His father explains that when Lynn was nearing the end of the game, he suffered a major heart attack, causing him to hit his head on the railing. "Did...did Lynn's team win?" Lincoln asks despairingly.

"Son, your sister quit the game when she saw the paramedics roll you out on a gurney. The game was called off." Lincoln rolls to his side in disappointment. "Dad, I'm sorry that this had to happen." Struggling to keep back tears, Lynn Sr. assures his son that it was no one's fault for his condition. Lincoln, who had been trying to keep himself from crying for his sisters' sake, couldn't help but to let a few bitter tears escape his eyes. Almost instantaneously, Lincoln's sisters broke down as well. Gathering around Lincoln, the sisters goad him into a group hug. "No matter what happens, you'll always be our brother" says Luna comfortingly. Even though they were all greatly suffering from what was to come, they were determined to keep strong until the end.

The doctor strolls into the room with a grim look on his face. It only took that one expression to make the family fear for the worst. "Mr. and Mrs. Loud," he says drearily, "I'm afraid that the major heart attack that your son suffered from greatly weakened him." His sisters latched onto Lincoln's ailing body in blind hope. The doctor felt the intensity of the girls' looks, and he struggled to finish his conclusion. "I believe that it's best for you all to start saying your goodbyes." Lincoln's sisters reacted in horror upon discovering that they had even less time to spend with their brother, and they nearly dog piled on the doctor to make him reconsider his judgment.

"Girls!" shouts Rita "I know that you love your brother, we all do. But you shouldn't badger the doctor for answers." Knowing this to be true, they walk back towards Lincoln's bed in defeat. "Well, who's going to start?" asks Lincoln. His sisters nearly fought each other for the position, but they decided that the best way to do this is to go by oldest to youngest. As the elder of the Loud siblings, Lori goes first. With mascara running from her face, Lori walked over to her brother, and bent down to reach his eye level. "Lincoln, I know that I've said and done things to you that seem harsh, but that doesn't mean I despised you." Lori tried to blink away fresh tears before continuing. "Truth is, despite everything, I actually liked you, twerp." She lightly taps Lincoln on the arm in a playful fashion. Lincoln lightly chuckles at this, his chest heaving sluggishly. "You weren't so bad either. I'm actually going to miss doing your laundry."

Leni was next. "The best memory that I've had with you is how you would often model in my dresses. I know that you never cared about modeling that much, but I felt that it was the only way that I could spend time with you." Leni blows her nose into a tissue. Lincoln smiles slightly. "Well, it wasn't as troublesome like you'd think." This causes his family to chuckle momentarily. Perhaps they thought that the medication was getting to him as normally a boy wouldn't dare to model their sister's dresses.

Luna goes next, followed by Luan. When they got to Lynn, however, she was standing by the door with her back turned. "Lynn, please Lincoln needs this as much as we do," begs Luna. Even though she no longer felt guilty about Lincoln's illness, she refused to see her brother in such a condition. While infuriated, the sisters understood her plight, and they skip over her.

Lucy slowly walks over to her brother, clearly unhinged from the predicament. She pulls her hair away from her eyes to look at her brother. Lucy hardly ever revealed her eyes to anyone. Lucy's eyes – a lush, golden brown – were surprisingly filled with emotion. Seeing Lincoln's frail body triggered more tears to erupt from her tear ducts. "Lincoln, thank you for being willing to listen to my poetry as well as for keeping our little secret," she says in her monotonous tone. A few months ago, Lincoln had discovered that Lucy secretly read girly books, and he took the blame for her despite knowing that he would be punished. "No problem, Luce," replies Lincoln. She bends down to give her brother a light peck on the forehead. Despite appearing to be dark and brooding, in her suffering, Lucy revealed that she was susceptible to the simple human emotion of grief.

As Lucy backed away from the bed, Lincoln felt a tug on his bed sheets, and he looked down to see the teary-eyed twins. "Please Lincoln, don't leave us!" shouted the twins in unison. They were the ones who had held out the most hope that their brother would recover only to have their hopes dashed by the harshness of reality. "Who's gonna play Princess Makeover with me?" wines Lola. "Who's gonna watch me roll in the mud," bemoans Lana. While Lincoln was feeling rather weak, he mustered up enough strength to tenderly pet his younger sisters' heads. "Lola, promise me that you'll win all of the pageants," demands Lincoln. Lola looks up at her brother with a mixture of sadness and understanding. "And Lana, promise me that you'll be the best engineer in the world." Lana wipes her nose with her bare hand before vowing to make him proud.

Lisa was the last sister to come before the bedridden young boy. Lisa removes her glasses momentarily to wipe away at the tears. "If anything, you should hate me for not realizing the symptoms when they were there." Lincoln quiets her down with a hug. "No, no, don't beat yourself up, sis." Lisa looks up at him in astonishment "But, you're..." Lincoln shushes her. "You are one of the greatest scientists that I know. Don't see this as a mistake, see this as an opportunity." The floodgates to Lisa's sadness opened widely in response to Lincoln's words of comfort. She latches onto Lincoln for comfort of which he responds by weakly wrapping his arms around her for an embrace.

Lincoln looks over to see Rita holding Lily. Sadness washed over Lincoln yet again when the thought of Lily forgetting that he ever existed reared its ugly head. Sensing his anxiety, Lynn Sr. pats Lincoln's arm tenderly. "Don't worry son. When the time comes, we'll show Lily the home videos. That will be your legacy to her." Lincoln sighs in relief. His greatest fear of having his youngest sister forget him had been dealt with, so he could finally be at ease. He looks across the room, and sees Lynn still standing by the door.

"L…Lynn," groans Lincoln agonizingly. Lincoln extends his hand out. "Lynn…it's okay. Please….please grab my hand." Lynn refused to budge. Lynn clasped her hands into fists. "Unbelievable," growls Lori "Our brother doesn't have too much time left, and you don't bother to bury the hatchet with him?" Lori storms over to Lori like a whirlwind. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Without much warning, Lori strikes Lynn across the face with her right hand. Lynn caressed her face to ease the stinging sensation of Lori's slap, and they began to savagely fight each other. Amidst their fighting, Lynn bit down onto Lori's arm, drawing blood. Lori screams in agony before clawing Lynn's face with her fingernails. His remaining sisters had also gotten involved in the fight as a means of breaking it up.

Lincoln was horrified by what he had seen. He had tried to lessen the severity of his passing with his family, but even now, his family was falling apart. "Girls" Lincoln cries "girls, please, it's not worth…" Lincoln grabs onto his breast and whimpers. Lynn and Lori stopped in their tracks. Fearing for the worst, Lincoln's remaining sisters raced to his bedside.

"Lincoln, Lincoln, no!" screams his sisters as the doctor was alerted to the dilemma. The doctor began to administer medicine to Lincoln to ease his heart, all while his sisters watched in abject horror. The drugs seemed to lessen his heart rate, somewhat for him to give his family some closure. Weakened by the heart attack, he slowly expressed his final wishes to his family. "Lincoln…." says Lori who was now close to tears. Lincoln lays back in his bed, his chest exhaling in a wheezy fashion. "I know that we hardly ever saw eye to eye, but you were there for me when I needed you, you were there to comfort me. There isn't anything more that a boy could ask for. I love you all."

Right before he closed his eyes for the final time, he saw some familiar boy looking at him with an expression of happiness. "Great work, Lincoln, I am so proud of you." Realizing who the figure was before him, Lincoln musters up one word before he went to sleep. The doctor checks Lincoln for any vital signs before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Loud. He's gone." His sisters burst into tears when the final verdict was delivered. They tried everything that they could think of to possibly revive their brother, but they were forced to part with his body when the doctor covers Lincoln with his bed sheets. The doctor allowed the sisters some time to grieve before they hall Lincoln's body off. Lori turns to look at Lynn only to see that she had disappeared. Apparently, she left the room by the time that Lincoln flatlined. It took Lori some time, but she eventually found her sitting in the van.

Lynn was angrily trying to suppress her tears when she was caught off guard by Lori. "Lynn, can I come in?" Lynn threw a tennis ball at Lori only for it to ricochet off the window. "GO AWAY!" Even though she knew that she could possibly get hurt, Lori swallows her pride, and opens the van door and sits beside Lynn. "Lynn, I'm sorry that I attacked you." Lynn looks at her sister, ashamed. "No, I deserved it. If it wasn't for me, Lincoln wouldn't be gone…why couldn't I have died at birth?"

Taken aback by her words, Lori gently rubs Lynn's back. "No, no. It's not your fault." Tears slowly rolled down Lynn's face. "But if I didn't hit Lincoln with that damn ball…" Lori embraces her younger sister. "No, idiot, don't you remember what the doctor said? Lincoln would've died had the tumor in his head not have broken up. Don't you see, you helped us appreciate our brother in the little time we had left." Lynn sniffles. "You're no mistake, Lynn." Lynn latches onto the eldest sister and allows the gateway to her soul to open. Despite being reluctant to even glance at Lincoln's body, Lynn – with the help of her sisters – musters up enough courage to lay her eyes on her brother's lifeless body. Lincoln's body lied peacefully in its bed, having all of the color drained from it. It only took two minutes for his sisters to begin another crying session before they're made to part. Lincoln ended up dying a week shy of the doctor's proposed two weeks.

* * *

 _AN: Hey, guys. This is AustinDR speaking, and I'd like to apologize for taking the second chapter of "Remembering Lincoln" down without much prompt. You see, part of the reason as to why I deleted it at first was because I didn't feel entirely pleased about how it turned out. It was emotional, yes, but I didn't feel that it fully enforced the emotions that Requiem for a Loud has. While I am not trying to emulate UnderratedHero's style, I did feel that Lincoln's death scene was slightly rushed, so I decided to delete it. That, and I felt embarrassed that I tried to come up with a possible outcome for Linc when UnderratedHero didn't even finish his fic yet, of which I was willing to hold back until he completed it._

 _Admittedly, I had only had the one-shot of Lily uncovering the old video tapes in mind when writing the response to Requiem, but I did want to tie in why the video tapes were essential to the overall idea. I am by no means a good writer. I mess up a few times, but I hope that this is slightly better. If not, I'll probably just retool it until I get it just right. I also apologize for it coming off as rushed. I had so many ideas to put into this interpretation of Requiem, that it was hard to visualize everything. Again, sorry for the crappy story._

 _Also, heads up: I'm intending on removing both chapters once Requiem is completed._


End file.
